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Friday, November 09, 2012

Sex, Lies, and HBO Documentaries: A Review of "Mea Maxima Culpa"

Catholic
and non-Catholic moviegoers alike should be concerned about a new film that
purports to document decades-old abuse scandals in the Catholic Church.

Mea Maxima
Culpa: Silence in the House of God, created by HBO Productions, attempts to chronicle the Church’s
response to the crimes of the notorious pedophile priest Lawrence Murphy, who
is alleged to have abused dozens of innocent boys at St. John’s School for the
Deaf in St. Francis, Wisconsin from the 1950s to the 1970s. The episode was the
subject of a series of high-profile articles by the New York Times’ Laurie Goodstein during Lent of 2010.

The
film also recounts the criminal episodes from a while back involving Irish
priest Tony Walsh and Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ.

Indeed,
the abusive crimes committed by the profiled priests were abominable. Murphy,
Walsh, and Maciel wreaked immeasurable damage to their victims and brought
tremendous shame to the Church. We always must be mindful of this.

In
fact, one redeeming aspect of Mea Maxima
Culpa is that the film allows the victims themselves to effectively
describe the grievous harm and criminal activity that was perpetrated upon them
and the devastating impact that the abuse had on their lives. The stories from
Murphy’s victims are at the same time stomach-turning, heart-rending, and
maddening. In this sense, the film has delivered an important service to
viewers.

The agenda
creeps in

However,
the film takes the unfortunate yet predictable turn in simply using the
scandals as a tool to advance a nasty anti-Catholic agenda.